Chris Katsafaros and Ryley Harlow placed fourth at Saturday's Merrillville
Semistate, advancing to the state finals Friday at Bankers Life Fieldhouse
in Indianapolis.

"Getting (to the semifinals) was pretty good," Trojans coach Chris Joll
said. "We will look at our draws and hopefully head to Indy with a plan that
can get us a couple of medals."

Katsafaros (39-3) came into the day with one loss this season, an overtime
defeat to Mishawaka's Tristan Macri at the Al Smith Classic. After a pair of
first-period pins, Macri made it two, sidetracking Katsafaros with an 8-4
decision in the semifinals.

"(Macri) never, ever stopped moving," Joll said. "We could've been a little
more aggressive. Part of it is Chris wants to take the guy down, pin people
and get it over with. We had some things taken away from us."

Katsafaros then lost 7-3 in the 145 third-place bout to Lowell's Mitch
Roadruck in a rematch of the Crown Point Regional final, which Katsafaros
won by pin.

"It's a shame to lose a match when you're being the aggressor," Joll said.
"I didn't do enough to adjust for the match and it cost him."

Harlow (36-10) moved into the 285 semifinals with a pair of falls before
dropping a 5-1 decision to South Bend Clay's Shakir Carr.

"(Carr) pinned him in about 12 seconds in (the Tom Cameron tournament), but
the coaches worked up a plan that worked pretty darn good," Joll said. "Ryley
weighs like 240 and (Carr)'s like 270. That's like a '52 wrestling an '82.
Ryley moved very well on his feet. He wrestled six minutes and (Carr)
wrestled about 35 seconds. It seems like the smaller guy never gets (the
stalling point). It would have been nice to get a win but we couldn't have
asked for a lot more."

Hanover Central's Josh Bartoszek pinned Harlow at 2:02 for third place in a
rematch of the Crown Point Regional final that Bartoszek won 3-2.

"Ryley tried to open it up," Joll said. "It would have been nice to have had
him for four years. I think he would have been a lot of fun to watch."

Trojans Matt Estill (120) and Jack Davison (138) both bowed out in the first
round.

"They both wrestled guys who had just dominated them before," Joll said.

Estill fell 12-3 to Merrillville's Adam Garcia.

"I've been saying it the whole tournament series. Coach (Brian) Swallow has
done a great job with Matt," Joll said. "Matt's gotten so much better the
last month than he was the first two months. Next year, he shouldn't be
satisfied with just getting here. He's turned into a little man. He's not
just a freshman. He's done that by working hard and setting goals. He takes
to coaching very, very well. There was a point in the match where he was
getting beaten up physically and he just smiled like, 'Come on, how about a
little more?'"

Davison dropped an 8-2 decision to Mishawaka's Grant Marstoff.

"Jack was just in over his head with a guy who took him down and kept after
him," Joll said. "He wound up (third), so he lost to a pretty good guy."

Chesterton finished 16th as a team with 22 points. Merrillville took the
title with 115 points. Penn was second at 98.